How New is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology deals with materials and machines on an incredibly tiny scale -- less than one billionth of a meter. To learn more about nanotechnology

In 1959, physicist and future Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman gave a lecture to the American Physical Society called "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom." The focus of his speech was about the field of miniaturization and how he believed man would create increasingly smaller, powerful devices.

In 1986, K. Eric Drexler wrote "Engines of Creation" and introduced the term nanotechnology. Scientific research really expanded over the last decade. Inventors and corporations aren't far behind -- today, more than 13,000 patents registered with the U.S. Patent Office have the word "nano" in them [source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office].

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